Visiting Friends

From December 10th to the 14th, we had our little friend Isla over for an extended sleepover. Her parents were going to Arizona for a job interview and to look for a house. Poor little Isla is a sensitive soul and did her best to be a trooper but I did find myself asking the others a lot, "Why is Isla crying now?" On the first night I woke up to screaming crying because she had thrown up all over Pepper's bed. Luckily, Pepper was sleeping on the floor and we moved her into Morgan's room and they both slept just fine. I immediately started having visions of the stomach flu going through my house but turns out Isla throws up when she cries and that is what happened. To help me out though, Cody slept on Pepper's floor with Isla the rest of the night just to make sure. On Tuesday, Isla slipped on our kitchen floor and hit her head. More crying and gagging but managed to avoid throwing up. Later, I decided to take all 3 girls to Aldis grocery store (I must have been out of my mind I know.) Hazel was strapped into the front of the cart while the other two were hanging on to the sides. I turned around and let go of the cart to get some orange juice when I heard a loud crash and screams. I turned back to find the cart laying on top of Isla and Pepper (who had run around to climb on Isla's side) and Hazel hanging there with her head on the floor. Immediately a group of people gathered and helped lift the cart and the girls. Somehow everyone managed to survive with no injuries. Hazel and Isla were both crying hysterically but I had to help Isla first because she was starting to gag and I didn't want her throwing up in the store. It took a few minutes to get her calm and convince her that she needed to stop crying so that she wouldn't throw up before I could finally pick up a screaming Hazel. I somehow managed to finish gathering groceries with everyone happy and Hazel back in the cart just to find that I did not have my debit card and could not buy the groceries after all that. Needless to say I broke down once I got everyone back in the van and headed home empty handed and a lot overwhelmed. My dear friend, Mindy, whom I had called in a moment of panic, came to my rescue and showed up at my house right after I had put Hazel down for a nap. She told me to go shopping and get some lunch. It was exactly what I needed and so appreciated. Not surprising that Mindy is also our compassionate service leader! I learned my lessons after that and spent Wednesday and Thursday hanging out at home and keeping things very low key. Oh, and Cody also went out of town for business on Thursday and had a high council meeting on Tuesday night. To top off the crazy, I had book club and writers club on the two nights Cody was gone so I had to get babysitters. Since I was already worried about Isla getting upset with homesickness I didn't want to further upset her by having a stranger put her to bed. Luckily, I managed to put the girls down early, in separate rooms and only had to have the babysitters put Morgan to bed a little later. Thank goodness for the McCoy sisters!
Well, that turned into a much longer story than I intended and I'm making it sound horrible. It really was not that bad having Isla with us but I must admit I was very, very happy to get back to 3 kids on Friday morning. Poor little Isla spent a lot of time just hanging out with me since Morgan and Pepper were at school and Hazel naps a lot. Good thing she is really, really good at playing by herself or just watching a movie quietly. She was also very cute with Hazel. Isla is a very lovey girl and also has a baby brother that she was missing, so Isla got to give all that pent up extra love to Hazel.

Isla doing a little dress up.

A video of Isla helping me to encourage Hazel to walk with the baby stroller:

My girls just taking it easy on Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, November 30th, Pepper, Hazel and I went down to Massillon to spend the day with Jen and Ava. We all had a fabulous time catching up and hanging out together. We just love that family.

Hazel getting her first "kind of" hair cut. I'm not counting it as her first, first hair cut, because Jen only trimmed a bit of her whispy side mullet and there was not enough to collect for her baby book. Pretty cute picture though.

Hazel in baby girl heaven.

Pepper in little girl dress up heaven.

Morgan and Sarah have traded off playdates and on this particular afternoon she was at our house. The kids always have a good time together and we love the company.

I was doing something in the other room and walked back into the family room to find all 3 kids sitting in the chair together. I know they all look miserable in this picture but I swear they were having fun.

On Thursday, November 29th, the girls and I headed to the Akron Zoo, after Pepper got out of school, with our friends, Emily and Elsie. We all wanted to take one last ride on the carousal before they closed it down for the winter. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and we were all very happy to be out of the house.

The whole reason we went was to ride the carousal and I didn't even get a picture on it because Hazel freaked out all of a sudden and would not let go of me.

Matching hats.

Yep, that's Elsie walking away. Hazel needs to catch up with her twin!

I really like this picture not only for the lovely ladies in it but the cool reflection as well.

I love how it looks like I caught Pepper off guard while doing some important business on her iPhone and she is just a little annoyed with me. And I love that the 3 yr old is the one in the stroller and not either of the babies.

We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends here in Ohio. They really help make the holidays a little sweeter.